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A Farewell to Arms

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About this listen

 The definitive edition of the classic World War I romance novel, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten notes and long passages crossed out, giving readers a sense of an author’s process” (The New York Times).

Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable tragic story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse.

Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield frontlines—weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.

Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. This edition collects all the alternative endings together for the first time, along with early drafts of other essential passages, offering new insight into Hemingway’s craft and creative process and the evolution of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Featuring Hemingway’s own 1948 introduction to an illustrated reissue of the novel, a personal foreword by the author’s son Patrick Hemingway, and a new introduction by the author’s grandson Seán Hemingway, this edition of A Farewell to Arms is truly a celebration.©1929 Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright renewed ©1957 Ernest Hemingway; (P)2006 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc. 20th Century Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Veteran Creators War & Military World War I War Heartfelt Tear-jerking Italy Military
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Thoroughly recommend this - an author I’ve not got around to reading, he lived up to his reputation

Excellently acted audiobook

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Wonderful story and excellent narration. Characters were brought to life beautifully. I loved this book.

Beautiful

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This was a very enjoyable listen. The book is a comment in life and war and death. Hemingway uses dialogue in such a realistic way. The rhythm of the language is fantastic and the story of ‘tenente’ and his war comrades sits in contrast to his life as the young man Henry the man in love with Catherine learning about life in relationships. Fascinating too the history, the war itself and the things we inflict on each other. The reading was superb.

Beautifully read, beautifully written

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Superb narration. Hemingway was a genius. what a story. Loved it. Rarely moved so much by an audio book.

Excellent

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Given the date I thought it would be good to listen to a reading of 'A Farewell to Arms' forty years after I first read it and I am glad I did so. The book has not aged as badly as some might imagine and despite Hemingway's decline in popularity, due no doubt, to our modern aversion to his hunting, fishing and shooting lifestyle, this remains a classic. On a macro level he covers the war well from the perspective of an American 'outsider' in the Italian army. I have always loved Hemingway's descriptions of eating and drinking and Frederic Henry's consumption is enthusiastically described. So is his affection for his Italian comrades. He is also a master at describing the natural world such as the crispness of weather, the slap of water on an oar and the smell of woodsmoke. At the micro level Frederic's relationship with Catherine is covered in intense detail and is surprisingly frank in respect of sexual relations given the time in which it was written. John Slattery does a great job with the narration and, although Catherine was a bit of a stretch, overall I feel he was convincing. The final part of the novel is utterly heart-breaking and brutal but that was Hemingway. The world kills everyone in the end.

Brutal Classic

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